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Simple Guide for making MPEG's optimized for PocketTV

That's probably the first thing you should try:

Simple Guide for making MPEG's optimized for PocketTV
This Guide assumes that you have AVI video files (or video files that you can play on your PC with Windows Media Player) or that you already ripped your DVD's. If that's not the case, you should learn how to rip your DVD's (see below).

The rest of this page will give you many pointers to more advanced guides and tools.

Make Your Own MPEG's!

If you want to produce your own MPEG-1 files suitable for viewing with PocketTV,
we have put together a list of the best tools available including some freeware, and
guidelines about the encoding parameters that you should use.

Freeware MPEG Encoders

Users have reported using the following freeware to create MPEG's that work well with PocketTV:

TMPGEnc (Tsunami MPEG Encoder)
The best software MPEG converter, and it's free! We hightly recommand TMPGEnc for creating MPEG's that work well with PocketTV. TMPGEnc has a large number of options but yet it is relatively easy to use (read our Simple Guide). TMPGEnc can take sources in many different formats including AVI and MPEG. We have used TMPGEnc to transcode DVD's and VCD's so that they can be viewed with PocketTV (between 500 Kbit/sec and 114 Kbit/sec) and have achieved excellent results. Check also this Guide to perform IVTC (InVerse Tele-Cine) with TMPGEnc.

Note that the default parameters of TMPGEnc (video bitrate, audio bitrate etc) are not optimum for PocketTV. Just read our Guide and always use our TMPGEnc Templates to get optimum performances and small file size.

FlasKMPEG
MPEG conversion program, can
take a MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 stream and convert it to another format, changing
video parameters such as resolution, frame rate, audio sampling frequency, and
even do some cropping and letterboxing. Unfortunately we don't recommend using FlaskMPEG. The bbMPEG encoder used by FlasKMPEG is complicated to configure and much less efficient than TMPGEnc.

VirtualDub
VirtualDub is a video pre- and post-processor that works as a valuable
companion to a video editor.

SmartRipper
SmartRipper is one of the best DVD VOB file extractor (so called "DVD ripper"). You can use it in conjunction with TMPGEnc to convert DVD to MPEG.

Commercial Software MPEG Encoders

Users have reported using the following software products to create MPEG's that work well with PocketTV.

ImTOO Ripper Pack Platinum
DVD converter and DVD rip software which can rip DVD and convert DVD to MPEG and many other formats. Sells for about $45.

We recommend that you try various setting allowed by your encoder to determine what works best for you. Those are just guidelines, you can try other parameters.

If you want to distribute your MPEG streams, we recommend that you check that
they play properly on the slowers Pocket PC models (e.g. Jornada 540 and Cassiopeia E-115).
You may have to adjust the parameters (size, bitrate) to ensure good quality on those
devices. Only the new ARM-based Pocket PCs (e.g. iPaq) will play properly MPEG files encoded in SIF size (320x240).

A good compromise between size, quality and support for all Pocket PC platforms seems to be half-SIF (240x180 or so depending on the aspect ratio), at a total bitrate of about 400 to 500 Kbit/sec, with audio in joint-stereo at 64 or 96 Kbit/sec.

These are the parameters used by PocketMovies.net, and the quality of their content is excellent and can be considered as a reference for quality.

A good preprocessing (including de-telecine) is very important, and the source should have a regular frame pattern (e.g. 24 frames/sec if it is a movie source).